Strengthening Food Security through Technologies

Wani, S P and Patil, M D and Singh, D (2019) Strengthening Food Security through Technologies. National Security, 2 (2). pp. 170-190. ISSN 2581-9658

PDF - Published Version Restricted to ICRISAT users only Download (1MB)

Abstract

Securing food for 1.35 billion Indians and doubling the income of farmers by 2022, as stated by the government, are challenging tasks. India’s performance is below average in all three aspects of food security: availability, affordability, and quality and safety. It is an irony that the nation with largest cultivable land in the world (142 million ha) is facing food insecurity in spite of wide agro-ecoregions that enable cultivation of land even for three seasons in the large area. A large population (58%) depends on agriculture for its livelihood but the contribution of this sector to country's gross domestic product (GDP) has declined continuously since 1950 and was 15% in 2018. Although, the country has transformed itself from dependency on imports to selfsufficiency still the challenge is to remove the farm distress in the country. Current farmers’ field yields are lower by two to four folds than the achievable potential. In addition, the value realisation from the market is 30 to 35% only. This is because 59 % of the farmers in India do not get essential information from any agency. The major hurdles for achieving the goals set by the government are low investment in agricultural technologies, low adoption of key technologies by the farmers largely due to lack of knowledge/information, poor physical infrastructure, and involvement of large number of intermediaries in the value chains. Lack of awareness among farmers about good agricultural management practices is a key factor for stagnant productivity levels. The mind-set of all actors involved in agriculture needs to change so that they work collectively as a team instead of working independently in silos if the agrarian situation is to be transformed.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Research Program : Asia
CRP:	UNSPECIFIED
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Food Security, Technology
Subjects:	Others > Agriculture-Farming, Production, Technology, Economics Others > Agricultural Extension Others > Food Security
Depositing User:	Mr Arun S
Date Deposited:	08 Apr 2020 13:01
Last Modified:	08 Apr 2020 13:01
URI:	http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/11468
Official URL:
Projects:	UNSPECIFIED
Funders:	UNSPECIFIED
Acknowledgement:	UNSPECIFIED
Links:

View Statistics

Actions (login required)

View Item